Malaysian state-owned oil major Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., a subsidiary of US-headed ExxonMobil Corporation (ExxonMobil), one of the largest publicly traded international energy companies to jointly explore opportunities in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to help decarbonize Malaysia’s upstream industry and provide carbon dioxide (CO2) storage solutions for the region.
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Under the terms of the MoU, signed on November 3, 2021, both parties will assess the viability of potential CCS projects in selected locations offshore Peninsular Malaysia and identify suitable technology within the scope of carbon capture, transport, and storage for a potential application.
The companies will also share subsurface technical data to enable CO2 storage assessment and characterization. Relevant data related to pipelines, facilities, and wells will also be shared to evaluate the potential utilization of existing infrastructure for transport and storage in selected locations.
Position Malaysia as CCS hub
The MoU supports PETRONAS’ continuous efforts to efficiently produce and optimize its oil and gas assets to generate the resources to fund growth, facilitate progress and allow the company to decarbonize and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is also one of the many efforts to position and establish Malaysia as a leading CCS solutions hub in the region.
PETRONAS is taking deliberate steps to build a resilient and sustainable portfolio to support the transition towards low-to-zero carbon energy sources. These include developing, testing, and piloting a suite of technologies at its first offshore CCS project set for CO2 injection in 2025.
The company is also pursuing more zero continuous flaring and venting of hydrocarbons to reduce emissions while continuing to reshape its portfolio mix for cleaner sources of energy.
This collaboration is an important step to unlock the opportunities and potential of CCS in Malaysia through applied technologies and innovation, potentially helping us reach our net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 aspiration amidst an evolving energy landscape. PETRONAS and ExxonMobil share a long-standing relationship that has seen multiple successful collaborations and business ventures between the two parties in Malaysia and abroad. We are proud of our partnership with ExxonMobil and look forward to achieving a shared ambition of delivering energy security and clean energy solutions, said Adif Zulkifli, PETRONAS EVP, and CEO of Upstream.
Low Carbon Solutions leveraging CCS opportunities
The MoU strengthens a decades-long strategic partnership between ExxonMobil and PETRONAS and is the ninth CCS opportunity that ExxonMobil has announced since establishing its Low Carbon Solutions business in March 2021 to commercialize low-emission technologies.
The others are in Houston, Texas (TX); LaBarge, Wyoming (WY); Edmonton, Canada; St Fergus, UK; Fife, UK; Normandy, France; Indonesia; and Russia. These are in addition to previously announced projects in Qatar; Antwerp, Belgium; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and Australia.
ExxonMobil continues to explore opportunities in Southeast Asia for large-scale carbon capture and storage projects that have the potential to make the greatest impact in the highest-emitting sectors. With joint collaboration and well-designed policies, we can use our capabilities to develop projects that progress reliable, safe, and ready-to-deploy technologies at scale that could significantly reduce emissions throughout Malaysia, said Joe Blommaert, President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions.
Low Carbon Solutions is initially focusing its carbon capture and storage efforts on capturing CO2 from industrial activity that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and injecting it into deep underground geologic formations for safe, secure, and permanent storage.
It is also pursuing strategic investments in biofuels and hydrogen to bring those lower-emissions energy technologies to scale for hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy.
The company has an equity share in approximately one-fifth of global CO2 capture capacity and says that it has captured approximately 40 percent of all the captured anthropogenic CO2 in the world.
